Water Kitten

Here is Kabob enjoying the bathroom sink again. Every time you go in the bathroom to wash you hand or brush your teeth or just about anything else he tries to push you out of the way of the sink so that he can play in it. Here are also a couple of videos of him playing in the water.

I had to stop taping him but he continued to drink the water like that for about 5 min.

Kabob really like to drink the water out of your hand. He isn't the smartest cat though and seems not to notice when the water is on his head.

How I Met the Chief of Police

So crazy came to visit yesterday morning....along with the entire police force. At approximately 3 in the morning someone started banging on the door. living on campus this is not too uncommon so I just tried to sleep through it. after a while the just wouldn't go away. So I got up and looked out the window and saw some guy that looked pretty freaked out. When I opened the door he ran past me and tried to run up stairs but tripped and fell and just stayed there. He started to sware up a storm and tell me all about how someone put a gun to his head. He reeked of alcohol and I asked him how much he had that night and he said too much. Then I saw headlights shining in our window so I looked outside and saw a cop car turning around. Meanwhile, mister crazy pasted out on the futon. I told Brook to go upstairs and call the cops. Sure enough, the police knew exactly who we were talking about. Within seconds the cop came running through the front door and tackled him on the floor. He tried telling the cops this was his house and my name was Jake. I said otherwise. By now the chief of police and four cop cars worth of police were at my house. They told me that this was the second house that night he had done this to. In the end it was decided that because the police did not see him enter our house and I didn't make him leave that either they had to let him go on our front lawn or we had to put him under citizens arrest and let him spend the night in jail. He got to spend a night in jail. Later that morning I was again woken by the sound of knocking on the door. Luckily this time it was my buddy Nathan that I was supposed to help move in that day. Sorry, no pictures of mister crazy. Ill try to remember to take the camera downstairs with me next time.

Living in Idaho

So here is what we woke up to this morning. It snowed over a foot overnight and we had some digging to do. Here is a picture of me throwing an ice cicle at the snow. I was trying to get revenge because there was already another inch of snow on the ground by the time I was done shoveling the walkway.

We also had to dig the car out. We had to pile all of the snow behind the Jeep because the four wheel drive in the Jeep went out in it a few weeks ago so it wasn't going anywhere.

All together I spent between 4 and 5 hours that day shoveling snow. depending on where you measured there was anywhere from 23 to 35 inches of snow on the ground.

Happy New Years

So a lot has happened in the last year and I wanted to take a few moments to remember all of the wonderful things that have happened and reflect on all that Kyle and I have been blessed with.

This time last year we were living in my dad's basement studying hard for school. Speaking of school, I graduated in June. Kyle graduated as well and then enrolled in University of Idaho.

For Valentines day I made a romantic candlelit dinner and Kyle decorated the basement by covering the walls with dozens of handmade hearts that each had a special note written on them.

On our two year anniversary, Kyle and I went to Portland. We went to the zoo and a Korn laser light show at Omsi. We also watched a performance by Cirque Du Soliel called Corteo. We sat in the second row and were able to interact quite a bit with the preformers. We even got to throw a midget in the air. She was tied to a hot air balloon and the clown threw her in the audience where we took turns passing her back and forth.

Over the next couple months I continued to study, write papers and do clinicals. I graduated on June 8th. Kyle moved to Moscow, Id on June 14th while I was studying for my nursing boards in Vancouver, Wa. Kyle Started working with the forest service in Potlatch, Id the Monday after he got to town. I stayed in Walla Walla for a coupe more weeks where I worked on cleaning, packing the last of our stuff and studying.

I was a nurse at Camp Wooten during the last week of June where I enjoyed spending time outside and playing with all of the kids. I moved to Moscow immediately following my week of no sleep at camp.

I took my nursing boards, and passed them on July 9th. Then I started working at the hospital in Lewiston the following week in the pediatric department.

During this entire time Kyle was working 10 hour days packing a chainsaw between 5-10 miles every day. While working he got to see some moose, porcupines, and heard a lot of wolves. His job was dangerous sometimes. He once had to jump off a cliff to keep from having a tree fall on him.

Tyrel and Mandy came to visit us for a week which was a lot of fun. We spent a day in Couer d'Alene and Spokane. We went bowling, played the Wii and spent time with Mike and Keri.

Kyle started school in August. His classes were pretty challanging and kept him very stressed out and busy, but he made it through with all A's and B's.

Wicket was hit by a car in July and was never fully able to recover so unfortunately we had to put him to sleep. When Wicket left our family, we had 2 new cats added to our family, Shish and Kabob.

The weekend before thanksgiving Kyle went with his parents to Rexburg, Id to visit Tyrel, Mandy, and Ivan. He had a blast down there. Then we went to Walla Walla where we visited with family and Kyle made a robot for his classes.

We got our first snow of the year in December and when we went home for Christmas we got to see a lot more snow. We had a wonderful Christmas together.

And that all brings us to New Years. Kyle and I spent new years eve watching movies and playing our Wii that we got for Christmas. We played Mario party and made a bet that the loser had to run outside barefoot in the snow and ice to check th mail. Kyle lost so I got to stand at the door and laugh as he ran to the mailbox and then when he got there realized that we had recieved a package and that he had to open another mailbox to get our mail.

I am so greatful for how much fun we have been able to have and how blessed we have been to be healthy, safe and to do so well in all that we have worked toward. I hope that 2009 will be as great as 2008 was.

Merry Christmas

So this year Kyle and I had our first Christmas alone together. It was fun making the Christmas dinner and getting to open our presents together. We did miss our families though, but at least we were able to go home and see them for a few days before Christmas. I was supposed to work on Christmas Day so we came home Christmas Eve and had our Christmas dinner then.

This is a picture of our wonderful Christmas Eve dinner. It wasn't much, but it sure was tasty. Everything turned out wonderful, which was a relief since I had never cooked Christmas dinner by myself before.

Kyle was a huge help with Christmas dinner, even though I noticed that he didn't wait until desert to try our pumpkin pie.

Kyle carving the Christmas Ham.

This was our small Christmas tree. The cat's were pretty good about leaving it alone although they did knock it over once while we were in Walla Walla and they do like to eat our bird decorations. They just love the tail feathers.

So Christmas morning finally arrived, well actually we got up and opened presents at 5:00am when the hospital called and woke us up to say that I could be on-call and could spend Christmas at home. So we got up and opened our presents, and the cats opened theirs.

This toy is called a Cat Teaser and it works great for teasing them. We did end up having to take it away though because Kabob likes to carry it in his mouth and hide and growl to keep anyone from taking it away from him. Maybe we teased him too much and now he is afraid that we will take it away...which we did.

The cats really enjoyed all of the catnip in the toys too. This is Kabob after he has had a little too much catnip.

Here he is passed out after a lot too much catnip. Notice that he is passed out on a catnip toy pillow.

So then Kyle and I open all of our presents. Kyle liked his boat and really wanted to go play in the snow with it but I was a little too cold and a little too tired at 5am so he just played with it in the house.

Merry Christmas!

ceramics update

Here is a preview of my final capstone project for ceramics. I'm going to make a vase out of different colors of clay in a process called neriage. Here is a chili pepper I made from a mold using the two clays.

When throwing with this clay it leaves a cool pattern on the wheel when you cut it off of the wheel.

I had to make the vase in two parts because I suck and can't throw tall things. the bottom is in the close one and the top is in the background. It should be about 11.5 in. tall when its done.

here is the vase before it has been bisqued. the swirly design is some more neriage. its made by rolling strips of clay into a log to form the pattern you want and then cutting it really thin. So what you see is the cross-section of the log I made. When it has been bisqued I will put a clear glaze on it and then fire it for the final time.

Happy Halloween

When I went to the hospital's employee Halloween Party a couple of my coworkers and I went as the pink ladies. I was Sandy. I still can't believe how big I got my hair, I guess with a lot of hairspray anything is possible. I'm just glad I don't smoke or I may have combusted that night. I have to admit I totally rocked the tight black polyester pants and sexy shoes.

This is the back of my Pink Ladies jacket. I love puffy paints.

This is Shish in her Halloween costume. Since she is definitely the larger of the two kittens, it was only fitting that she got to be the piggy this year. As you can tell she still doesn't know if she likes Halloween.

Another picture of our happy pig.

Shish finally warmed up to the idea of Halloween when she learned what trick or treating is.